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Researchers at the Laboratory of Preclinical Investigation at the Institut Curie in Paris (France) have been developing animal models of human uveal melanoma and liver metastases as early tools in drug development.

This work, conducted by Dr. Alda Rola from the Liverpool Ocular Oncology Research Group (LOORG) led by Professor Sarah Coupland, aims to find out the effectiveness of the LUMPO3 in predicting how often uveal melanoma patients should have liver scans

In the last UM Cure 2020 Patient’s meeting, Dr. Emma Dorris ran a workshop entitled “The Art of writing to be understood”, where early career researchers worked with experienced patients on previously published research summaries.

Having taken place at Liverpool University, in Liverpool, England, from the 29th to the 1st of December, this was a unique gathering that emphasized the importance of consortia as driving forces for the development of new therapies for uveal melanoma.

In this video, Tamara Rimmer, uveal melanoma patient and Ocumel UK Patient Advocate, talks about why it is advantageous, for both patients and physicians, to have better informed patients regarding their disease.

In this study, the authors used UM PDXsto evaluate the efficacy of the selumetinib, a targeted therapy medication aimed at blocking a specific part of one of the pathways responsible for the appearance of UM cancer cells, alone or in combination with other therapies.

The World Ophthalmology Congress, organized by the International Council of Ophthalmology, was an outstanding meeting! It was really motivating to see how multiple groups across the world are fighting uveal melanoma, both in the clinic and research settings.

In this paper, the authors discuss the various treatments evaluated in the setting of metastatic uveal melanoma, including systemic chemotherapy, immunotherapy, targeted agents against the MAPK pathway, and liver-directed therapies.

“Together with a better understanding of the biology of the disease and the recent delivery of relatively large studies, this holds hope that new and more effective treatment options will become available for UM patients with metastatic disease in the near future.”

In patients with metastatic uveal melanoma, the combination of selumetinib plus dacarbazine had a tolerable safety profile but did not significantly improve PFS compared with placebo plus dacarbazine. Despite the results of this study, additional assessment of MEK inhibitors in uveal melanoma is warranted.

Having taken place on 18th January at the Institut Curie in Paris, France, the second meeting of the UM Cure 2020 Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) gave UMCure 2020 SAB members and partners the chance to consider the consortium's successes obtained during its first two years, as well as look forward to the work ahead.

Their Royal Highnesses Queen Maxima and King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands visited the Champalimaud Centre for the Unknown on 11th October 2017, where they were presented to the UMCure 2020 project.

Having taken place at Jagiellonian University, in Krakow, Poland, June 15-17 2017, this was a unique gathering that emphasized the importance of consortia as driving forces for the development of new therapies for rare diseases.

Dr. Richard Marais presents the UM Cure 2020 project.

A three-year postdoctoral position funded by the EU Horizon 2020 Programme is available in the laboratory of Prof. Richard Marais to identify and validate novel therapeutic approaches for the treatment of metastatic uveal melanoma (UM).

Professor Sarah Coupland, head of the Liverpool Ocular Oncology Group, was elected Vice-president of the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmogy, one the foremost scientific organizations in opthalmology worldwide.